Gendercide—reaching far beyond China

Genocide. We are all familiar with stories of it: Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Sudan. What did these people groups do to deserve extermination? They were born at the wrong place at the wrong time. Popular sentiment was turned against them, costing them their lives. It was determined that they were a threat; that they were not worth keeping alive. And so they were killed. They were hunted down. They were exterminated. And when what happened was exposed, the world looked upon it with horror. Innocent lives were taken, lives that simply can never be replaced.

Gendercide. The most obvious example of gendercide is China’s One Child Policy. In most parts of China, women are only allowed to have one child. Since male children are seen as the most desirable, female babies are aborted. According to All Girls Allowed, (an organization dedicated to revealing female infanticide and gendercide in China and providing hope to China’s mothers and girls), the male/female ratio is now causing serious demographic problems for the country. There are about 40 million males in America under the age of 20. In 2020, it is estimated that there will be 40 million more Chinese men than Chinese women under the age of 20!

There are about 50 million girls who have been aborted in China. While that number alone is staggering, think of it in terms of the US population: that is roughly one-sixth of the population of the United States!

China is now seeking to “soften” its message. Slogans such as “We would rather scrape your womb than allow you to have a second child” are to be replaced with slogans like “Caring for the girl means caring for the future of the nation.” But the underlying policy will remain the same. One child.

But don’t think that gendercide is limited to countries with third-world aspects like a government who controls the number of children born or where male children are prized over female. Allowing abortion has created a “convenience” mentality. Follow the logic. If a woman doesn’t want a child now, she can have an abortion. If she feels she has had enough children, she can have an abortion. If there is a problem with her child, she can have an abortion. If she doesn’t like the gender of her child, she can have an abortion.

So we really shouldn’t be a bit surprised if this particular slippery slope leads from guilt-free annual terminations – three for two, anybody? – to a “gender-balancing” service, which helps you plan the perfect family by vacuuming away infants of the wrong sex. There is a moral coarsening here that should concern us all. How desensitised have we become when an act of life or death – literally – is used as a tool to satisfy a curious desire to have one that you can dress in blue, as well as pink?

The Telegraph recently reported that gender selection is happening in England. Developed countries now freely kill children on the basis of gender. “[H]aving a baby has become just another consumer choice, hasn’t it, and, well, the customer is always right.”

Where does it end? Maybe someone will suggest killing unwanted children after they are born. Oh wait, that has already been suggested…